Device for grading leather and other materials



H. E. VAN VOORHEES DEVICE FOR GRADING LEATHER AND OTHER MATERIALS FiledJune 29, 1922 amen flow //d70/J a? y007%eas JEAg QMWVMM (imam/15144especially developed for the purpose of Patented July 7, 1925.,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HAROLD E. VAN: V OORHEES, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA,

DEVICE son GRADING LEATHER. Am: crane MATEBIAIS.

Application filed June 29, 1922 Serial Not 71, 189.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, "HAROLD E, VAN VooRHnEs, a citizen ofthe UnitedStates of America, and resident of Indianapolis, in

the county i Marion and State of Indiana,

have invented new and useful Improvements in Devices for Grading Leatherand Other Materials, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to grading scales grading lea@er,,but it willbeevident from the disclosure that the inventive idea here- 7 in set forthmay be readily adapted to the grading of many difierent materials.

The art of grading leather as heretofore practiced according to theindividual skill of the workmen comprised feeling or looking at'ormeasuringthe leatherin order to gage its thickness and weight per unitarea, the grader then u'singhis jud ent in determining. the grade of theskin. Methods such as this are highly empirical and far fromscientifically accurate.' The dividing lines between the grades cannotbe accurately fixed orsharp'ly defined, but vary.

with diiferent graders and the same grader may reverse hisdecision inre'gardto the grade of a skin on a second test. I

Objects of the invention are to grade materials with accuracy anduniformit to I avoid the uncertainty of prior metho s of gradi todetermine the grade scientifically without extensive calculation,topermit accurate grading to be done by unskilled operatives, and ingeneral to overcome the defects of previous methods and apparatus.

- indicator arranged for relative movement The invention comprisesapparatus having a material support downwardl movable in placed thereontogether with a scale and an proportional to the movement of saidsupport, the scale being divided obliquel to the indicator into sectionsindicative o the grade of the material. Either the indicator or thescale ma be movable in response to movement of eflsupport, but in eithercase the indicator isf'elongate and the scale is two-dimensional, onedimension extending 7 lengthwise of the indicator, and, the otherdimension. along the path of movement ci the indicatoror scale. Eitherthe-indicator or the scale (or both) has spaced along the first saiddimension gradations correspondgraded.

. that given a certain dimension the the proper grade for the material.

dividing lines marking the bounds of the grade sections of ,the scalemay be curved .sca .sarily a scale for each kind of material toproportion to the quantity 0 material removably moun ing to thedifferent quantities of materials to be graded. The aforesaid sections,which are oblique to both dimensions, are so positioned relatively tothe loci of said gradationsthat the grade is indicated by the sec tionover which stands the radation corresponding to the quantity 0? materialbeing In a more specific aspect. the invention comprises a'weighingdevice having'a scale with graduations thereon corres onding to thedimensions of the pieces to be graded, said scale being divided intosections corresponding to the grades'of the material so v sition of thepoint on the scaledetermine by the weight and the given dimensionindicates The or straight, depending upon the she e of the scale, andthe kind of material eing graded. The dividing lines may be of diferentcolors or the sections of the scale indicating the grades may he tintedin different colors to facilitate readin the scale. It is likewisewithin the scope o' the invention to provide a multiple grading scalewhich may take the form of su erposed scales in "which a single scalesheet is "used but having more than one set of dividing lines thereon,each set being fora, different kind of material and preferably indifferent colors, or the single scale sheet may have two or more es onthe same area. There is necesform'B and an upright portion C extendingupwardly from see A, the upper portion D of which is generally segmentalin form. The scale mechanism (not shown) is mounted in base A andupright portion 0 and operates an indicating arm E which is arranged toswin mental portion in an arc across the segupon which a scale F 1s Thescale shown which is adapted for the grading of one species of leather,specifica'lly degreased patent leather, comprises a plurality ofconcentric arcuate lines G extending transversely across the scale and aplurality of radial lines H extending in a generally up and downdirection and intersecting lines G. The arcuate lines in the scale shownare graduations to indicate a chosen dimension of the material to begraded, such as thearea or footage of the 4' pieces ofinaterial, and theradial lines are graduations indicating weight, Extending obliquelyacross the scale are dividing or boundary lines I which divide the scaleinto sections indicated by the letters L, LM,

V and M5 each of these symbols indicating a certain grade of theleather. To facilitate the reading of the scale the scale arm E may havegraduations thereon conforming to the arcuate lines which indicate thefootage of thematerial;

In using the device the area of the leather is first determined, thepiece is then placed on the platform B, and after the pointer comes torest the grade of the leather is indicated directl by the section (L,LM, V or M) over whic lies the graduation of the pointer correspondingto the area of the piece. For example, if the piece comprises *28 squarefeet and the graduation 28 on pointer E stands over the section LMptheleather is of LM grade. I i

The dividing lines Iwhich form the'essential feature of the scale may bedetermined in the following manner: A large number of pieces ofmaterial, inthis case patent leather, are painstakingly graded accordingto the known methods andthese piecesare carefully measured and weighedand the weight per foot of each piece is accurately determined. By acareful examination ofthese figures noting particularly the pieces orskins having the highest weight per foot. foreach grade and the lowestweight per foot for'thenexthigher grade, the dividing istener weight perfoot are determined. Using these figures as abasisycalcula-tions pointsbetween the grades expressed in are made for footage (in this instancefrom tol feet) to determinethe limits of the different grades. A scale,or scale dial is then made with graduations H in one directionindicative of weight and graduations G substantially at right angles, tothe first gradations indicative" of. footage. 'The' points correspondingto the abovefigures' are then plotted and connected by lines, which arecurved or straight depending upon the shape of the dial, these linesforming the dividing or boundary lines of the grade sections of thescale.

From the above it will be evident that a device of the type disclosedtends to elimi-I nate inaccuracies, to make grading uniform and topermit unskilled operatives to do more efficient and uniform gradingthan that heretofore done by experts.

I claim: I

Apparatus for" g1ading materials COlIlprising a movable materialsupport, a scale and'a'n indicator arranged for relative move-.

ment on movementof said support, the indicator being elongate and thescale extending both transversely and longitudinally of the indicator,the elongate indicator having HAROLD E. VAN VOORIEES,

